2026 · 03
The case of the mysteriously bent cage
A whole truckload came in last month with the exact same bend in the exact same cross-member. Here is what we figured out about it.
Yard notesCages
Read →Field Notes
Short notes from the yard floor.
Nothing fancy. Short posts about weird threads, cage grades, opinions on food-grade, and whatever else seemed worth writing down this month.
2026 · 02
Food-grade is a chain, not a sticker
Half of the "food-grade" totes for sale online are not actually food-grade. Here is the difference, and why it matters.
Food-gradeOpinion
Read →2026 · 01
The math behind matched-route drop-trailers
Why we prefer drop-trailers, and how pairing inbound pickups with outbound deliveries cuts delivered pricing by nearly half.
LogisticsPricing
Read →2025 · 11
Why we decided not to have a phone
We removed the business phone line in 2021. Here is what happened to response times (spoiler: they got faster).
Yard notesOpinion
Read →2025 · 09
Two years in: what we learned from 900 rain-barrel conversions
Notes from building 900 rain-barrel conversions: which fittings hold up, which lids fail, and why gravity feed beats pumps every time.
FabricationRain barrels
Read →2025 · 07
A brief and accidental history of the 275 gallon IBC
Why the number is 275 and the footprint is 48×40 — a short history of how the IBC industry settled on a standard nobody officially standardized.
HistoryStandards
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